Digium launches their standalone G100 and G200 VoIP gateways, which negate the need for a TDM (T1/E1) card to be installed in your Asterisk server. Both products are fanless and have no moving parts, which means higher reliability. Further, many Asterisk deployments are now happening in virtualized environments or in the cloud where you cannot have a dedicated TDM card installed. These two VoIP gateways support TDM-to-SIP, SIP-to-TDM and SIP-to-SIP (transcoding) applications to bridge the TDM and SIP worlds.

Ensim Corporation today announced support for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multi-tenant environments allowing enterprises who wish to host Lync in the cloud to have a a powerful deployment tool at their disposal. Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition now offers full support for Microsoft Lync in multi-tenant environments for messaging, presence, web and video conferencing, and telephony with enterprise voice. With Ensim Unify's ability to allocate resources physically and logically, service providers using Lync Server 2010 Multi-tenant Hosting Pack (Lync Hosting Pack for short) can support small or large deployments in multi-tenant mode or can dedicate a single server to a single organization and allow custom SIP integration for each organization - all while managing Lync as a single platform.

Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition offers service providers and a complete, centralized, relational platform that manages creation, activation, configuration, and administration of an entire hosted application and cloud service offering.

Zingaya today announced Zingaya Enterprise, a new platform and API enabling VoIP calls from a browser or a mobile app with a single click. Their platform enables developers to build out Mobile VoIP apps, with applications that include support desk and sales & e-commerce, with the goal of improved conversion rates.

Zingaya enables VoIP calls without a phone or without requiring a download. E-commerce companies and other customer-focused organizations can embed a widget on their website that allows their customers to simply click a button to start speaking to a live customer agent.

netTALK today launched netTALK DUO Wi-Fi, launching exclusively first in Target stores nationwide. Check out my review of their original non-Wi-Fi netTALK DUO, which required an Ethernet (wired) connection. Their new wireless product will be available starting early April at Target stores nationwide, with other retailers being added soon.

“We are truly making history with the launch of netTALK DUO WiFi,” said Anastasios ‘Takis’ Kyriakides, President and CEO.

maaii pronounced as “mahy-ee” or “My-ee” is a free mobile VoIP application for iPhone and Android featuring Facebook integration and it comes bundled with 100 free minutes ($1.90). However, as part of their launch they're recharging each users balance back to $1.90 each day, thus giving each user 100 free VoIP calling minutes every day!

I decided to take the app for a test drive on my iPhone 4S. The maaii app will run in the background unless you force the app closed. Thus, you can receive inbound calls very quickly without waiting for the app to load.

The Federal Communications Commission today voted and passed a requirement that interconnected VoIP service providers report significant network outages that meet specific criteria and thresholds. The goal is to ensure 911 system reliability and perhaps customer awareness of fly-by-night VoIP operations that are just trying to make a buck. The FCC will use outage reports to "track and analyze information on interconnected VoIP outages affecting 9-1-1 service and determine if action is needed to prevent future outages." In other words you might be looking at fines if you don't have a reliable VoIP network.

According to Chairman Julius Genachowski, "With today’s action, the FCC is helping ensure that our communications infrastructure is more resilient.

KEMP Technologies today announced that its LoadMaster hardware-based and virtual appliance load balancers are now approved for Microsoft Lync Server 2010. If you recall, I spoke with Kemp last year about their Exchange 2010 load balancer, so adding Lync load balancing certainly rounds out their Microsoft portfolio. KEMP’s LoadMaster products offer server load balancing, optimized application delivery and built-in SSL acceleration. These features enable the LoadMasters to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft's Lync server pools.

I've tested, used, and reviewed many Polycom phones over the years, but apparently I never noticed or received this warning letter with these phones. Check out this ridiculousness:

WARNING ALL SOUNDPOINT IP PHONESWith respect to section 5.4.3.10 of the Australian Communications Authority as Telecommunications Technical Standard AS/ACIF S004 2004 under the s376 of the Telecommunications Act 1997:

You should be aware that, under certain operating conditions, the handset earpiece may retain small metallic objects. If this occurs, these objects should be removed before using the handset.

Dell has partnered with Ontario-based Fongo to offer Dell Voice, a VoIP app exclusively available exclusively in Canada that offers a Canadian phone number and free calls to most of Canada. Also, incoming calls and Dell Voice-to-Dell Voice calls are free of charge. This reminds me of how Dell partnered with Sightspeed, now a part of Logitech to offer a multi-party video conferencing service called Dell Video Chat. I reviewed the software and it works well, but with free alternatives like Skype, having the ability to do 9-way (3x3) Brady Bunch video is a very niche application. Practically nobody has ever heard of Dell Video Chat, so here let me share a couple screenshots of it...

Screenshot of me testing it:

2x2 (4-way video call)

I suspect Dell Voice will suffer the same ignominious fate as Dell Video Chat. There's just too much competition, including superior offerings from Google Voice, Skype, and most recently Vonage.